2009 in Review

I did my first blog year end review in 2007. At that time we had spent the entire year in adoption mode and little did we know that we were less than 3 months away from bringing Lili home forever. Like in 2007, we have spent all of 2009 in adoption mode and are only a few short months away from bringing Naomi home. And just like I did in 2007 and again in 2008, I now present a quick review of the past year.

In January we were well on our way to having all our dossier documents in place when Microsoft announced they were cutting 5,000 jobs. Because we had no idea if Dave’s job was going to be one of those cut, we completely stopped our Ethiopia adoption and began researching other options. In February we discovered his job was safe and we were back on track and collecting the rest of our documents. By March we were still waiting on our home study report to be completed and by April we were waiting on our USCIS approval. In May our dossier was finally complete and in the hands of our agency. In June our dossier was in Ethiopia and we were officially a waiting family. July, August, September and October we waited then finally November arrvied and we saw our baby girl’s picture for the first time. In December we were notified that we have a January court date and again we wait.

We also had some stresses during 2009.

In January Ben borrowed my van to run a quick errand in our little town and while driving back hit a patch of ice, slid into an older truck which totalled my van. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but insurance didn’t cover everything and we now had the expense of purchasing a new vehicle.

In July we were informed that the agency providing services to Ryan over the past 4 years had made the decision to discontinue those services. We switched everything into high gear and began the tedious task of finding a new and more appropriate agency for him. We were under pressure to file an appeal and find a new agency before his services were completely terminated by not only the agency, but the state as well. In late July we had located an agency that appeared to be perfect for Ryan and in August we began making the 2 1/2 hour one-way drive on pretty much a daily basis so Ryan could have regular visits to the agency while the paperwork was being processed. In September the move was complete, we were very happy with the new agency and we began to relax a bit.

Then, in October, Ryan began having problems with seizure control and landed in the hospital for almost the entire month. By November the seizures were finally back under control and we sat back and tried to regain some normalcy in our house.

Fortunately, our year was not completely full of collecting documents and taking care of Ryan’s needs. We actually made time to get away from it all and took a few trips.

In the spring we took a quick trip to St. Louis for a fun weekend with several other Guat adoptive families. During this trip Lili was reunited with the little boy who spent his last couple of months in Guatemala in the same foster home as Lili and I was finally able to meet his mom who I had spoken with on the phone and traded emails with during the last few months of our wait.

In June we too a trip to Memphis for the first time enjoying some Memphis BBQ and a trip to the Memphis Zoo. A trip back to Memphis is definitely in our future for more BBQ and another trip to the zoo.

Following our Memphis trip we went to visit family in the Dallas area where Lili experienced her first boat ride, Dave and I enjoyed our first experience inner tubing and I enjoyed my first shopping trip to Sam Moon.

For our last trip of the summer we headed east to attend the Guatemala Adoptive Families Event (GAFE) in New Jersey followed by a quick trip to Boston where we visited some good friends, tried cannoli’s for the first time, visited the agency that handled Lili’s adoption and saw a few sites in Boston.

In September we went back to Dallas to surprise Dave’s sister for her 50th birthday and then our travels were over for the year.

2009 also allowed us the opportunity to be reunited with old friends as well as giving us the privilege of making some wonderful new friends.

We are looking forward to all 2010 has to offer and wish all of our friends and family a safe, happy and prosperous New Year!